The run below was £48 and the
wire to prevent burrowing was an extra £17 this run is still too small at 160 x
90 x 45 cm and should be higher at 60cm. Also extra to allow it to be sunk in the
ground. The small carry hutch (has a
handle on the top), from Freecycle, adds to the space allowing Mitsy to get out of the rain and
wind.

A big improvement over the small hutch she had at first. The
only hutches available locally offered nothing better.

New Year January

Easter April - house bunny

It is said that you don't get to know someone until you live
with them. As a complete surprise to me, this also applies to rabbits.

Mitsy had stayed with me over Christmas, two years earlier, in but remained a
caged, outside rabbit. This was the condition she was used to, including
that cramped tiny cage. I did let her run around the garden and brought her into
the kitchen but it was then back to the rabbit run. She has a natural curiosity,
most likely because rabbits like to map out their escape routes. Other than a
very strong dislike to be handled and a mammoth struggle when held I had not
really considered that she has a strong and very funny character.

As the run was not brought over and my neighbour had puppy
proved the hedge between our houses all I had to do was secure the gap under the
gate to the garden. Mitsy could now have free range in the garden.

After the first day of freedom she wasn't too hard to catch
and a defied pounce pinned her to the ground and guarded against the back legs
ripping my arm up. The next day however she discovered the gaps under the brush.
With half a dozen exit points it was very easy for her to make a bolt for this
and avoid any hope of an easy capture. So I gave up and let her stay outside.
This is not altogether a good idea. Although the gap in the gate also locked out
the cat patrols and the hedgehog night feeders the gate is only a little barrier
from the young cats that like to chase the birds in the branches of the apple
tree.

Next day capture was still impossible. She had been seen
jumping into her old hutch and out again, so I know she had a choice of resting
places. She largely ignored her food having the free range of the lawn and a
choice of dandelions and clover. In the morning, after breakfast, she
would rest up under the garden bench catching the morning sun. As the sun rose
she would hide away under the brush and come out early evening for supper.

The odd dash and chase and a few rapid changes in direction
and she settled back down to munching her way across the middle of the lawn.

I left the kitchen door open. Eventually this proved too
temping, and she hop over the step and had a good sniff around. She had done
this on her previous stay so there wasn't anything particularly strange about
her behaviour. When she got into the living room this changed. The clean lines
of the kitchen and only a single interesting tunnel under one of the cabinets made way
for the multiple tunnels and path ways around the arm chairs, under the digital
piano, the back of the sofa and around various boxes stack for my future work.
She then took up residence under the digital piano, next to the radiator.

I hadn't seen her flump out before, other rabbits that we
owned, when I was a child, did but not Mitsy. However after a couple of
days of
making this her bolt hole and possibly because I moved the cables out of her way
she moving in under the arm chairs. Her nibbles lead her to the discover that
the armchair has a skirt, which will lift out of the way. With a push of
one hind leg at a time she is able to crawl between the mechanism of the
recliners. Now this was cosy, dark, even with the room lights on, and not as hot
as next to the radiator.

At about 5pm she would make a round of the living room, making
sure that none of the trails where blocked and then go over to the door to the
kitchen. We opened this for her. She would sniff around the kitchen furniture
and either go back to base or, after another inspection of the living room
furniture head for the door to the garden. Once in the garden she would dine on
fresh grass shoots and then rest on the path, under the garden bench or in the
middle of the lawn. A couple of hours later and she would come back in. If the
living room door was closed she would push it open, inspect the living room
furniture, check the trails and escape routes, fail to exit by the other door
(which opens inwards), stand up on her hind legs to see what's on the tables and
shelves, have a nibble at the furniture legs and any papers lying around and then crawl
under the arm chair.

About 8pm she would come out and see what we were up to. Then
wander into the kitchen and sometimes go outside, as indicated by heading to the
outside door, which we had to open for her, otherwise it was flumping out in front of the fireplace or back
under the armchair. This was then repeated at midnight, followed by a couple of
hours outside in the cold night air. But then the longer rest period until 5 am
and some early morning exercise at day break. By 8 or 9am she wanted to come
back in.

I blocked off the gaps under the sideboard unit as I had
cables, including mains cables underneath. The dark areas must have been very
inviting as she several times managed to break through the barriers and tried to
tunnel her way along the obstacles.

She also became infatuated with a shoe box full of old
cassette tapes and spent considerable time ripping the sides off. There was very
little mess from this as she seemed content in devouring the ripped up cardboard
as some kind of snack. Rabbits are very clean animals and she would spend
sometime after travels under the furniture wiping off the spider webs from her
whiskers and ears.

I was less pleased about her assault on the armchair velvet
skirt and devouring the certificate labels underneath them. At some stage she
also pulled all the wires from the back of the spare computer and chopped though
the specialised audio cable. It is not a good idea to have a rabbit loose with
so many cables and power supplies around. Everything got the lick treatment and
most things a little nibble as well. Anything she could grab was pulled on, even
to pulling out a single brochure from several in a magazine box.

One evening I moved the arm chairs back, which blocked off her
favourite tunnel. She came in from supper, inspected the sofa and hopped over to
the arm chair and thumped. You may think Thumper was only the invention of
Disney, but rabbits make you know when they are mad at you, and this was a very loud
thump. In fact she would thump if any of her tunnels where blocked off or the
furniture not in her preferred position.

One evening I was standing up in the middle of the room when
she pushed open the door. Stretched out, hind feet vertical she paused. Then she
circled me. Then again, and again, ever faster as she danced around me. One way
then the other. I have seen dogs chase their tail, but rabbits dancing was news
to me.

We discovered that she didn't simply push the living room door
open, but would somehow grab it and push. As we had not taught
her this manoeuvre we held little hope of her learning to close the door
afterwards. But that is what you get when someone is born in a barn.

With the routine established it was down to putting up with
letting all the warm air escape during the minutes it took her to decide if she
really wanted to go out or not. For her own safety we had to put her out when we
slept; although a couple of nights I simply left the doors open for her to come
and go as she pleased.

With my own pet rabbits I was able to groom them and handle
them and they would usually come when called. Mitsy, however, is wild. She hates
to be handled and is nervous against the possibility of being caught. Over the
week she would come to eat carrot from us, sniff at our socks, pull on my
trousers and sniff our hands - but always with an exit plan for rapid retreat.

On her second evening as house bunny I put down a carrot for
her. She ignored this for sometime, but then she picked it up and took it to the
kitchen to eat. With free and open access to the garden she always went out to
eat and do her other business. The only trail she left was fur; and soft bunny
fur does fly up and tickle. The floor, under her favourite armchair, had a thin
covering of soft white fur.

When, finally it was time to take her back I trapped her in
the kitchen and with her heart pounding loud enough to hear put her in the carry
cage. Boy was she mad at me; and for the whole journey had her back to the wire
door.

January 2010 back and a new Christmas home, £90,
105cm x 57cm x 90cm. Mitsy arrived in cat carrier but the hutch no longer
transportable was nelect and age meant it was falling to pieces. The two tier
hutch was therefore needed immediately.

Enjoying the run of the back garden after the neighbour dog
proved the adjacent fence.

December 2011 back again and rebuilt home as she wasn't allow
to use the run for a year!

May 2013, after garden landscaping and drainage put in.

Yet another new run June 2013, Made from six 2.4m x47x100mm
planks and two rolls of wire. The run is 2.4 x 1.5 x 0.9 m - about the largest I can make and still
move around the garden. The wire mess only comes in 90cm wide lengths. The idea
is to move it around so she never over eats the grass or digs too much in one
spot. Total cost about £84.

Now with wire mess roof and canvas cover to keep off rain and snow set for
winter. I strap down with bungees. The wire cover is not too much hassle, but
the canvas is when strapped down to the sides to get a wind break on two sides.
Mitsy chews on the green tunnel.

August 2013. The canvas tunnel she loved but also loved to
attack it and rip to bits.

October 2013

January 2014 connecting runs from
http://www.runaround.co.uk (£84). With the run 2.4 x
1.5 x 0.9 m and the hutch 105cm x 57cm x 90cm this should be large enough for two
rabbits to run around in.

February 2014 Valentine Romance for Mitsy and Chocolate her Lop Ear new
friend

I took Mitsy along to Woodgreen Animal Shelter who are able
to match homeless bunnies into pairs. It doesn't always work, particularly with
rabbits 6 1/2 and 7 years old as this pair. On Valentine's Day they formed a
bond - perhaps because Mitsy grooms Chocolate all the time.

Chocolate taking advantage of the sun in the large hutch.

Chocolate being doted upon by Mitsy.

They often see what each other is up to and join in with moving the furniture
around.

Construction of a new rabbit hutch August 2015

Setting out of the materials for construction. 8ft x 4ft 9mm plywood and 25mm
thick insulation boards. Fence posts of 2400mm and 1800mm. 4ftx4ft Perspex for
two of the doors.

Reflective bubble wrap for insulation of the side panels and
under the roof.

Adding the doors

600mm long fence post spikes to anchor into the ground.

Tiled the floors with slate tiles and the back with standard
15x15cm white tiles.

Cut hole in the left side and fixed the tunnel that connects
to the outside run. Mitsy and Chocolate take up residence on 22nd October 2015.